New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on November 29 a plea against the decision to pardon 11 convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang rape case.
A bench of Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice CT Ravikumar directed that the reply filed by the Gujarat government on the matter be made available to all the parties. The petitioners have been given time to file their reply on the affidavit filed by the Gujarat government. The bench said, the Gujarat government has filed a reply. This affidavit should be given to all the lawyers.
The Gujarat government on Monday told the Supreme Court that it had taken approval from the central government to pardon the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape case. It had said that the petitioners challenging this clemency were nothing but “obstructors in the work of others” and “they have nothing to do with it”.
Significantly, during the riots after the Godhra train fire, 21-year-old Bilkis Bano was gang-raped and seven family members, including her three-year-old daughter, were killed. Bano was five months pregnant at the time of the incident.
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mumbai on January 21, 2008 sentenced 11 convicts to life imprisonment for the gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and the murder of seven members of his family. His conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court. This year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Gujarat government pardoned these convicts as part of an amnesty policy, after which they were released from the Godhra sub-jail on August 15. (Language)
